Category: Announcements (Page 3 of 7)

Dear City Tech Faculty,

Exciting news! New York State and CUNY have reinvested funds to support open educational resources (OER) at the University. Our short-term initiative, which many City Tech faculty have participated in from 2017-2022, has been re-upped with tax levy funds for this fiscal year 2022-2023. In short, we will continue to be able to fund and support faculty creation and use of OER. Research conducted at City Tech and other institutions shows a correlation between assigning zero-cost OER and positive student outcomes: higher retention and comparable or better grades. 

We invite proposals from new and returning faculty (find more guidance on faculty eligibility below)!

Goals for the OER initiative at City Tech:

• Provide students with long-term access to course learning materials (before, during, and after the course runs).
• Support active learning and effective online instruction.
• Help achieve curricular consistency across multiple course sections.
• Help achieve coherence between sequential courses in programs.
• Provide instructors with ready to use teaching resources that can assist with flexible teaching/learning modalities.

Considerations for participating in OER funded work this academic year:

• Course selection:
  • We encourage converting courses that are gateway, high enrollment, part of a course sequence, required courses for a major or minor, pathways, etc., interdisciplinary in nature, course curriculum that is underrepresented, or inadequately represented by existing textbooks on the market.

• Priorities for funding OER projects:
  • Priority 1: Develop zero-cost OER for a course that previously required a paid textbook (this may include first time experimental pilots to assign OER in place of paid course materials).
  • Priority 2: Develop zero-cost OER for supplemental/ancillary teaching and learning materials (e.g., study guides, review modules, lessons, discussion questions, class activities, lecture outlines, writing assignments).
  • Priority 3: Make substantive updates to already assigned zero-cost OER (must be openly licensed materials authored by the applicant or another scholar).
  • Priority 4: Develop zero-cost OER for a course with a recommended text but that does not require paid materials.

• Faculty eligibility:

1. Full-time faculty that coordinate or regularly teach at least one section of a course, and have consulted with course / discipline coordinator and department chair.
2. Part-time faculty on 1-3 year re-appointments, with the approval of course / discipline coordinator and department chair.

Note: there is potential for multiple faculty to collaborate on creating a zero-cost O.E.R.

• Faculty commitments / compensation:
  • Faculty compensation will include project work and faculty development training: faculty stipends typically range from $1,300 – $5,000 (and a minimum of $500) depending on scope of work, and calculated on the average non-teaching adjunct hourly rate.
  • Faculty professional development will be conducted online / via Zoom.
  • Project work must be completed during the 2022-2023 academic year. For reference, the latest deadline for large-scope projects is June 15, 2023.

Please fill out a project proposal application by Thursday, September 15th, 2022. If you have any questions or things you’d like to discuss, please get in touch with OER Librarian, Cailean Cooney (ccooney@citytech.cuny.edu) or Interim Chief Librarian, Anne Leonard (aleonard@citytech.cuny.edu).  

Download a PDF version of this call.

To qualify as zero-cost OER, faculty can select course materials that are:

1. Open educational resources that are Creative Commons (openly) licensed, including but not limited to open textbooks
2. Public domain materials
3. Freely available web resources that do not violate copyright
4. Library-licensed digital resources, including articles and ebooks 

Call for Applications:
Open Education & Publishing Institute 

GC Digital Initiatives and the Teaching and Learning Center at the CUNY Graduate Center are pleased to invite applications from CUNY faculty and instructors for the Open Education & Publishing Institute. Faculty from any discipline are invited to apply to participate in the Institute where they will create, design, and implement an Open Educational Resource (OER) or an OER course built on either (or both!) the CUNY Academic Commons or Manifold. 
The Open Educational Resource or the OER/ZTC course that Fellows develop are intended to serve as models for future faculty who are interested in developing OER and teaching with open-source, digital platforms. See more about the two options below.

Option 1: Create and Design an Open Educational Resource
The OER created as part of the institute can be in the form of a CUNY Academic Commons website or a Manifold project. Please see the examples below:

• Manifold
  • Introduction to American Government
  • The Negro and the Nation 
  • Using Primary Sources 
  • TheoryWise 
• Commons
  • Natural Sciences Open Educational Resources
  • Open Music Theory 
  • GC Music Teaching Hub
  • News Literacy Matters
• Both!
  • ENG 302: British Literature II Manifold and Commons
  • ITAL 36141: Petrarch’s Poetry in Motion Manifold and Commons
  • POL 51: Introduction to American Government Manifold and Commons

Option 2: Create and build an OER/ZTC course
Fellows will design and teach a course using OER/ZTC materials. Courses will be hosted and taught on the CUNY Academic Commons and/or Manifold. The course should involve student development of public-facing work or a digital project. See course examples below:

• BIOL 4001: Field Botany
• ELL101: Linguistic Landscapes
• Art: Its History & Meaning
• QCC Great Books  
• Conociendo a Galdós (Meeting Galdós) 

About the Open Education & Publishing Institute
Selected Fellows will work with the GC’s Open Educational Technologists and colleagues from across the CUNY system to develop their OER or Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 course. In Summer 2022, from June 13-16, Fellows will attend virtual meetings, likely including four morning informational/workshop sessions, and four afternoon working sessions to plan and begin implementing their projects. During the informational and working sessions, Fellows will learn more about the affordances of the platforms, open access content and publishing, open digital tools, and best practices for developing experiential and public facing assignments and projects. Work will continue throughout the summer, culminating in a final August meeting. Following the institute, OEPI Fellows will be expected to write a brief reflection about the OER or open course they developed during their fellowship experience. 

Schedule
The first part of the institute will take place from June 13-16, 2022. Throughout July and August, Fellows will have one-on-one, virtual check-ins with the Open Educational Technologists, and will attend one final fellowship meeting in August to share their OER or course with their colleagues. 

Compensation
10 OEPI fellows will receive $2000 each to participate in the institute. Attendance is required at all events.

Credits
This Institute is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities American Rescue Plan and the CUNY Office of Library Services. It is administered by GC Digital Initiatives and the Teaching and Learning Center at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Eligibility 

• Faculty from all disciplines are eligible to apply
• Applicants should be scheduled to teach in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023
• Adjunct faculty with multi-year contracts are eligible to apply 
• Graduate student instructors with at least 3 years of teaching experience who will be listed as instructors of record in a Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 course are eligible to apply
• Applicants should have previous experience with Manifold or the CUNY Academic Commons/WordPress

How to Apply
By May 1st, please complete the linked application form AND email a single PDF named “OEPI-lastname.pdf” to tlc@gc.cuny.edu with the following:

• A brief CV of no more than 2 pages;
• A statement of no more than 500 words that offers:
  • A brief summary of your plans for creating an OER or open course 
  • Your experience with the platform(s) you plan to use, including links to past projects or courses (if applicable)
  • Details about how the Open Education & Publishing Institute will support your development of an OER or open course 

Application Form: https://forms.gle/i4JrRckPDYCV5Ci7A

If there are any questions, please email Laurie Hurson (lhurson@gc.cuny.edu).